PIAA Cross Country Notebook: O'Hara's impressive season ended in stunning fashion ... again

HERSHEY -- The odds of a team tying for a state title, only to lose on a tiebreaker, are extremely low. The chances of a team doing it twice in back-to-back seasons, as was Cardinal O'Hara's fate, are almost incalculable.

Yet as disappointing as that second-straight, second-place finish has to be, it cannot take away from what the Lions have accomplished in the last three years. They have a third-place finish and two seconds at the state meet.

No other team in county history can make that claim.

The Lions finished third to North Allegheny and West Chester Henderson in 2010, and tied North Penn and Henderson, respectively, in each of the last two years, only to lose the championship on the sixth-place tiebreaker.

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That was of little consolation to the Lions Saturday.

"They're hurting right now, but down the road I think they'll be able to look back and realize what they've accomplished," Cardinal O'Hara coach Tom Kennedy said.

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After losing two-time Daily Times Runner of the Year Hannah Grossman, Strath Haven coach Bill Coren thought this could be a long year for the Panthers.

His athletes believed otherwise.

"They asked me about going to states and I told them they were out of their minds," Coren said. "I'm just trying to win some meets in the Central League."

So Alice Pulchalsky and Sam Snyder made a bet with their head coach. If the Panthers qualified for the PIAA Championships as a team, Coren would take the team to Hershey in a limo.

Of course, the athletes won. The Panthers finished fifth in the District One Class AAA championship meet to earn a trip to the state championships as a team.

Coren kept his word. He shelled out $450 of his money to take the team to Hershey in style.

In honor of the fight against breast cancer, Coren rented a pink limo for 11 people. The group that got to make that ride were seniors Hannah Herrara, Phoebe Hollyer, Phoebe Price and Erin D'Amico, juniors Snyder, Puchalsky, Christina Sheruka and Sara Peeleman, freshman Maia Mesyngier and Dylan Butera from the boys team, who also qualified for the state meet.

The team had an iced tea toast on the ride up to celebrate their accomplishment. The Panthers finished 16th in the team competition. Puchalsky was the top Strath Haven runner. She was 75th overall.

"I wish we had run better," Coren said. "I don't think it affected the way we ran. We just had an off day, but it was a lot of fun. The girls earned it."

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Haverford's Courtney Naser did not let a little pre-race jitters bother her during the girls Class AAA race.

Once the gun went off, Naser's disposition changed.

"I was in a really good mood during the race," Naser said. "I don't know why, but I just felt really good out there."

Naser was on top of the world after she crossed the finish line in 52nd place, the fourth best finish by a Delco runner.

"It's pretty awesome," Naser said.

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It was a busy Saturday for Cardinal O'Hara junior Amy Kelly. In the morning, she finished 53rd in the girls Class AAA race with a time of 19:51, but did not stick around Hershey long.

She jumped right in a car to get back home to help the O'Hara field hockey team defeat George Washington, 6-0, for the District 12 Class AAA title.

"It's a little tough, but OK," Kelly said as she zipped down the turnpike thanks to her mom, Fran. "I like doing both and I was really happy with the way I ran. I got my best time on a really hard course. It was much tougher than Belmont Plateau and I was happy with that."

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No one can accuse Bonner-Prendergast senior Sara Dever of breezing down the stretch in the girls Class AAA race Saturday.

She ran the last 800 meters or so without her left shoe.

"I ran right out of it," Dever said. "I kind of got stuck in the mud and it came right off."

Much of that final stretch is over a gravel path.

"It was painful," Dever said.

Dever went back to look for the shoe, which had the computer tracking chip attached to the laces, but could not find it. The shoe was still missing as of Sunday.

Meanwhile, teammate Lauren Lamoureux took a little while to warm up in the chilly weather.

"The first mile my legs felt numb, but it's better than running in the heat," Lamoureux said. "The course was a little muddy, but to be honest, I expected worse. It wasn't that bad."

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Chris Kazanjian wasn't always on the same page as Penncrest coach George Munro, especially when it came to Munro's training schedule for the junior.

"He didn't trust it," Munro said. "He wanted to do things at a much faster pace and I had to tell him, 'Just wait until districts and states and you'll see.'"

Munro's training method worked. Kazanjian finished 20th overall in the boys Class AAA race, the best by a Penncrest runner since Nick Bonaventure was 43rd in 2008.

"That's right where I wanted to be," Chris Kazanjian said. "I came in here with a goal to finish in the top 25 and I was able to do that."

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NOTES: Garnet Valley's Alyssa Rudawsky is coming close to a decision on college. She's looking at East Carolina, North Carolina State, Maryland and George Mason. ... Bonner-Prendergast's Will McDermott, who finished 12th in the boys Class AAA race, said he is looking at Widener and Temple. ... It looks like Haverford All-Delco Tess Meehan is set to join her sister Sophia at Johns Hopkins. Tess Meehan said she just sent in her application to JHU. "I'm keeping my fingers crossed," she said.